SESAR

SESAR

The SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) programme is one of the most ambitious research and development projects launched by the European Union. The programme is the technological and operational dimension of the Single European Sky (SES) initiative to meet future capacity and air safety needs.

Given the complexity of the programme, a legal entity called the ‘SESAR Joint Undertaking’ (SJU) was founded by the European Union and Eurocontrol, to coordinate and concentrate all relevant research and development efforts in the Community.

The mission of the SJU is to develop a modernised air traffic management system for Europe. This future system will ensure the safety and fluidity of air transport over the next thirty years, will make flying more environmentally friendly and reduce the costs of air traffic management.

Following on from the conclusion of SESAR phase 1 (2016), successful solutions which have demonstrated significant performance or safety benefits and fulfil the requirement of the EU’s Pilot Common Project (CIR (EU) N° 716/2014) are being taken to the deployment stage. The SESAR Deployment Manager has been established to coordinate and efficiently synchronise the upgrading of Europe’s air traffic management infrastructure in line with the Deployment Programme. In parallel, the SJU are also organising the second phase of SESAR R&D activities, namely SESAR2020.

The SESAR phase 1 programme included a dedicated Work Package which addressed the critical dependency between weather, the environment, and the operational solutions of the SESAR Programme. Work Package 11.02 ran from 2012-2016 and aimed to better integrate new MET information services and information delivery functions, to enhance the performance of ATM.

As the MET Federating Project within the Programme, 11.2 ensured consistency and coordination of the MET architecture, systems and services, utilised by all SESAR projects and solutions. EUMETNET were responsible for the ‘Meteorological Information Exchange Solution 35’. The recently published Solution Catalogue describes the role MET plays in the ATM system and the work EUMETNET has done within SESAR.

EUMETNET led this MET workpackage which harnessed skills and technology into a consortium involving industry partners and several of our members:

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Following the successful conclusion of SESAR1, the technologies the EUMETNET consortium designed, developed, demonstrated and validated, have now been awarded EU grants to deploy to the stage of operational readiness. These deployment projects are being coordinated by EUMETNET in partnership with the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM).